Let's move to Peebles, Peeblesshire | Money | The Guardian

Let's move to Peebles, Peeblesshire | Money | The Guardian

What's it got going for it? Peebles doesn't need you. It doesn't need the Guardian. And it certainly doesn't need me. It's doing perfectly well by itself, thanks very much. Round here in the Borders, they do a nice line in independently minded, stubborn small towns: Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh and Kelso. But none finer than Peebles. Indeed, the brains at the New Economics Foundation thinktank declared it to be so independent, so protective of its identity, that it's the least cloned town in Scotland. It's only 23 miles from Edinburgh, but a thick padding of rugged moorland (rather ripe for walking in, especially Upper Tweeddale to the south) protects it from the seamier side of 21st-century life, allowing magnificent butchers like Forsyth's to flourish, or its footwear needs to be furnished by the friendly folk at Young & Co. And it has managed to do this without looking like a 1950s theme park. Why, they even allow mountain biking in Glentress Forest. Rather coyly, the council's slogan is "a hidden treasure", as if the town were half in mind to pull up the drawbridge altogether. A great name, too.